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MOBILE, Ala. – After seeing a 19-point second-half lead dwindle down to zero, the University of South Alabama men's basketball team scored the final four points of the contest to defeat Georgia Southern 80-76 Saturday afternoon at the Mitchell Center.

The Jaguars win their second straight and move into a tie for seventh place in the Sun Belt Conference with a 6-8 record in league play and an 11-14 mark overall. The Eagles have their four-game win streak snapped and fall to 11-13 and 7-7.

Georgia Southern's Jake Allsmiller scored a career-high 29 points on eight 3-pointers and Mike Hughes also hit the 20-point barrier with 23, 18 coming in the second half.

"I'm obviously very pleased that we're on a two-game win streak," USA head coach Matthew Graves said. "We were able to protect our home court again, which has been a theme coming into this three-game homestand, and we need to play well on Tuesday.

"For the most part we did a good job, especially in the first half, making them shoot some difficult shots, especially Hughes and (Tookie) Brown. You've got to credit Allsmiller. He stepped up and made a lot of big shots for them, and that was his career high. At the same time, our main focus was keeping Hughes and Brown down, and when they got loose in the second half, they gave us a lot of problems."

With the Jaguars holding a 74-57 lead with 5:20 to play, the Eagles went on a 19-2 run over a 4:28 stretch to tie the score at 76-76 with 51 seconds left. Allsmiller and Hughes combined for 13 of those points on 3 for 5 shooting from beyond the arc, and Georgia Southern outrebounded South Alabama 10-1 with five offensive boards.

The Jags missed all four of its attempts and committed three turnovers during that span.

Of USA's issues during the run, Graves said, "It was two-fold. They were making some big shots. I'm not going to take that away from them at all, but we took a couple quick 3s, and we panicked in our extended defense and our attack. We just got in a big hurry, and part of that, you've got to be in the moment, and you've got to understand time and score and valuing possessions. The hope is that tomorrow when we watch film, we'll really take a lot from that snapshot."

After Hughes' final triple that knotted the score at 76-all, Boyanov was fouled with 29.8 seconds left and hit both for a two-point advantage.

Georgia Southern missed a pair of shots on the ensuing possession, thanks in part to a big block from junior Tafari Whittingham (Brooklyn, N.Y.), and junior Ken Williams (Houston, Texas) iced the contest with two more free throws with 6.7 seconds to play.

"There's no question if that happened in November or early December, we'd be in here disappointed on a loss," Graves said. "We are showing growth, and sometimes it's very painful. We're doing our best to keep the fans here until the final horn. All this ends up being a learning experience, and we can learn from this and apply it to the next game. Maybe we're not in this situation Tuesday, but maybe on Thursday at Appalachian State we're in that same situation. We can now take confidence in knowing if we need to get a stop, we've got guys on the floor who are hungry, and they can fight and get that loose ball. When a guy steps up and shoots a free throw late in the game and makes both free throws, it's a confidence thing, and our ability to get stops late these last two games is going to really help us moving forward."

South Alabama never trailed and used a 13-4 run at the start of the second half – part of a 19-4 spurt spanning halftime – to go up 48-31 at the 16:31 mark. Six of the team's eight buckets during that stretch came in the paint, helping the Jags hold a 40-20 advantage in paint points.

"We were doing a great job of attacking the paint," Graves said. "We were getting to the paint, we were getting to the free throw line, we were pounding them on the offensive glass, then when things got helter-skelter, we were settling for quick 3s early in the shot clock, we weren't moving the ball as quick, and we were really playing to protect instead of attack, probe, and make the right play. We've got to continue to coach that, preach that, and show it on film. At the end of the day, learning from a win is a little bit easier."

Sophomore Shaq Calhoun (Rome, Ga.) and junior Georgi Boyanov (Lovech, Bulgaria) scored 20 points each, with Calhoun's output coming in a reserve role and tying his career high. Calhoun shot 4 for 6 from distance, while Boyanov hit all six of his attempts from the floor and just missed a double-double with nine rebounds.

Williams totaled 15 points and dished out a game-best seven assists.

"Off the bench, Calhoun and (Don) MuepoKelly did a tremendous job for us," Graves stated. "John Brown was unable to play for us today. He hurt his wrist in practice, and he's going to be day-to-day. Calhoun came in, stepped in, and played really well for us. Williams did a good job with a couple nice passes; seven assists from him is really good.

"We got a lot of good contributions from a lot of different people, and the more we can do that, the harder it's going to be to prepare for us and ultimately beat us, having a lot of different weapons."

South Alabama closes out its three-game homestand Tuesday against in-state rival Troy at 7:05 p.m.

NOTES: The 20-point advantage in the paint is South Alabama's second-largest against a Division I opponent this season (+24 vs. Appalachian State)… Williams hit a pair of 3-pointers to move into third place by himself for a career at South Alabama with 190… USA shot 50 percent or better in each half for the fourth time this season (3-1 record)… Calhoun set a new personal best with his four 3-pointers… The Jags won the rebounding battle 41-30, including 38-19 in the first 35 minutes of the contest… After going five years in between having two players score 20 points or more in a game, USA has done it twice in the last month… Whittingham tied his career high with a game-high three blocks, and the Jaguars were one off their season high as a team with eight… Boyanov's 6-for-6 shooting performance is the best by a USA player this season… South Alabama did not trail in a game for the first time this year, and led for 37:28; its next-highest lead time against a DI opponent was 37:01 at Georgia Southern… USA is 10-2 (5-2 SBC) when outshooting the opposition… GS shot 14 for 35 (40.0%) from 3-point land and 10 for 31 (32.3%) from inside the arc; USA converted 21 of 36 (58.3) of its 2-point attempts.

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

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